Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to wireless networks and more specifically to techniques for providing location and presence information using mobile IP signaling.
Mobile IP is a protocol that allows mobile nodes to roam between various subnetworks at various locations while maintaining Internet and/or wide area network (WAN) connectivity. As a mobile node roams between subnetworks, a mobile node attaches to various points of attachment of the subnetworks. The mobile node connects to the point of attachment through the layer 2 protocol layer. In this case, layer 2 information may be exchanged between the foreign network and the mobile node to set up a data link connection between the mobile node and the point of attachment. The layer 2 information is not used by a mobile IP protocol. Rather, mobile IP is directed towards a routing function at the network layer. For example, mobile IP is concerned with routing packets from a mobile node to a correspondent node through a user's home network while the user is roaming. Thus, mobile IP does not deal with sending the layer 2 information to the home network.
A point of attachment may send the layer 2 information to a location server though the layer 2 protocol layer. The location server deals with layer 2 services, such as keeping track of a mobile node's location in an access network. The location may then be used by a base station to contact the mobile node. These services are not robust and are not personalized across mobile nodes because the location server is not in contact with the mobile node's home network.